A Bangladeshi garment factory that burnt down on Tuesday night, killing seven people, made material for Target clothes in Australia, while Woolworths conceded it may also have sourced fabric from the same factory.

Seven workers died when a fire broke out at Aswad Composite Mills in Gazipur, the latest in a string of disasters to hit Bangladeshi garment factories.

Order books recovered from the still-smouldering factory showed the names of the factory's clients for September, including Target Australia, US brand Gap, British retailer Next, Swedish fashion label H & M and French supermarket Carrefour.

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A Target spokesman said while the company did not have any direct contractual relationship with Aswad, ''one of Target's registered Bangladesh suppliers does source fabric from this factory for garment production''.

The Aswad factory is owned by the Palmal Group of Industries, a massive textile and garment company that produces clothes for sale all over the world.

Firefighters try to control the fire. Photo: Reuters

Palmal supplies Woolworths Australia with T-shirts and leggings. Big W said it could not guarantee it did not source any clothes from the mill that burnt down, but refused to answer Fairfax's questions about its supply chain, or to reveal the address of the Palmal-owned mill - also called Aswad - from where it says it sources its clothes.

''Woolworths cannot rule out that some fabric has not come out of that mill, given we have orders with Palmal,'' spokeswoman Claire Kimball said.

The Aswad fire, which follows a blaze at Tazreen mill last November which killed 111 people, and the collapse in April of the Rana Plaza building in which at least 1127 people died, raged out of control until Wednesday morning, destroying several floors of the building.

Seven bodies have been recovered. About 50 workers were injured. The fire reportedly started in a malfunctioning knitting machine that had caught fire several times before.

Palmal directors did not return calls from Fairfax on Wednesday and the company website was shut down, but Palmal's senior officials' online profiles show an established working relationship with Woolworths and Target in Australia.